1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shutter mechanism of an open type ice bin, and more particularly, to a shutter mechanism of an open type ice bin that prevents the shutter from being undesirably pushed downward in a vertical direction during an ice grinding process performed by a grinder.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view that illustrates a simplified structure of a refrigerator, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the structure of conventional open type ice bin of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a running mode state diagram of FIG. 2.
As illustrated in these drawings, a typical refrigerator comprises a water tank 10 that is attached to the refrigerator body for keeping a certain amount of water therein, an ice machine 30 connected to a double solenoid valve 20 which is interposed at a first outlet 11 of the water tank 10 and including an ice making mold 31 that is used to make ice, an ice bin 40 that is connected to the ice making mold 31 for storing the made ice and grinding the stored ice prior to dispensing, and a dispenser 50 that externally discharges the ice from the ice bin 40 through an outlet thereof, and further externally discharges the water stored in the water tank 10 through a second outlet 12 thereof.
The double solenoid valve 20 comprises an ice making valve (not shown) and a dispenser valve (not shown). As mentioned above, the ice making valve supplies water to the ice making mold 31 by opening the valve when ice making is necessary, and the dispenser valve discharges the supplied water to the dispenser 50 by lowering the temperature of the supplied water upon passing through the water tank 10 and thus opening it according to the user's need.
The ice bin 40 comprises a case 41 with an upper portion that is open (or can be opened) to allow a flow of ice (e.g., ice cubes, pieces of ice, etc.) to enter and has a diffuser 41a at a bottom portion thereof used for externally discharging the ice; an auger 44 positioned within the case 41 for transferring the flow of ice; guides 42a, 42b for guiding the transferred ice; a grinder 43 for grinding the ice guided by guides 42a, 42b; and a shutter 45 that opens and closes the diffuser 41a for selectively discharging the ice from the case 41.
One part of the case 41 is formed to be rectangular, and the grinder 43 is located at the center of the bottom of the case 41. The guides 42a, 42b are inclined “downward” towards the grinder 43 (positioned at the center of the case 41) and formed to be extended from both side sections of the case 41. The grinder 43 and the guides 42a, 42b are arranged at a fixed distance (namely, there is a gap therebetween) to allow the ice cubes to be ground up as they fall into the grinder 43.
The grinder 43 comprises a rotating blade 43a having the same axis with the auger 44, and a fixed blade 43b being fixed and arranged in a perpendicular manner (at a right angle) with the bottom surface of the case 41, and wherein multiple blade portions. 43c that are curved inwardly (as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) are provided along the length of each rotating blade 43a and provided on the fixed blade 43b, such that ice may be ground therebetween.
As can be understood from FIG. 2, the guides 42a, 42b comprise a first guide 42a which is inclined downward from one side section of the case 41 to the grinder 43, and is formed by being extended to a distance from the grinder 43 and a second guide 42b which is inclined downward from the an opposing side section facing of the case 41 to the grinder 43 and is formed by extending to the adjacent location from the fixed blade 43b. 
Referring to FIG. 2, the shutter 45 has a fixed length and is formed to have a curved portion according to a radius of rotation of the rotating blade 43a. The shutter 45 has one end being hinge-engaged adjacent to the first guide 42a to allow rotation towards the bottom of the case 41 in order to selectively open and close the diffuser 41a, and has another end that selectively contacts with the second guide 42b when the diffuser 41a is closed to prevent ice being discharged from the ice bin 40.
The bottom of the shutter 45 includes a coupling member 47 having certain dimensions and a coupling hole 47a formed therethrough, and one end of a control lever 46 which upwardly supports the shutter 45 is coupled in the coupling hole 47a to allow the shutter 45 to be opened or closed, and to maintain, the closed state of the diffuser 41a. The other end of the control lever 46 is inserted into a joint 48 that is securely attached to the case 41 and acts as the axis of rotation for the control lever 46 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
In accordance with the related art structure, the ice sent into the ice bin 40 through the open upper potion thereof, is transferred to the grinder 43 by a spiral type auger 44 that rotates upon receiving power from a motor (not shown). Pieces of ice fall between the curved blade portions 43c of the rotating blade 43a (that rotates on the same axis as the auger 44) and the curved blade portions 43c of the fixed blade 43b that is fixed to the case 41, and the ice is thus ground (crushed) by the rotating power of the rotating blade 43a. As the rotating blade 43a rotates in the counterclockwise direction (when viewed along its axis as shown FIGS. 2 and 3), the control lever 46 is operated to pivot at its point of insertion at the joint 48, causing the shutter 45 connected to the control lever 46 (via the coupling hole 47a of the coupling member 47) to rotate in a clockwise direction (when viewed along its axis as shown FIGS. 2 and 3). Namely, the shutter 45 is “opened” due to the movement of the control lever 46 to allow the ice that was ground (crushed) by the rotating blade 43a and the fixed blade 43b to be discharged through the diffuser 41.
However, in such a conventional shutter open-close structure of an open type ice bin, during the ice grinding process of the grinder, it is problematic that the initial position of the shutter is pushed down due to fatigue load, because the shutter is pressed down while functioning as a guide to transfer ice after grinding (crushing).